Depressive Symptoms Not Found To Increase Risk of Dementia

7 June 2017

Whitehall II findings show that there is no support for depressive symptoms increasing dementia risk.

Whitehall II
data on depressive symptoms over 28 years show that depressive symptoms in
later life were significantly associated with development of dementia. However,
depressive symptoms in midlife, even when chronic or recurring were not
significantly associated with development of dementia.

Thus, there is no
support for the hypothesis that depressive symptoms increase dementia risk; our
findings are consistent with the hypothesis that depressive symptoms are a
prodromal feature of dementia or that the two share common causes.

The study has been published by the Journal of the American Medical Association: